The present invention is directed to a control device for controlling bicycle operating components and, more specifically, to a control device for operating brakes, bicycle transmissions such as hubs and derailleurs, and other devices.
With a conventional bicycle control device, the control displacement of a lever or knob controlled by hand is transmitted to a winder that is linked to one end of a control cable, and this winder reels the control cable in or out depending on the direction of this control displacement. Movement of the control cable results in the actuation of a working device such as a derailleur or brake linked to the other end of the control cable. Cable mechanisms work very well when the position between the manual lever or knob and the winder is in a twisted relation, or in cases in which there is a large gap between the manual lever or knob and the winder.
A bicycle shifting control device in which such a cable mechanism is used is known from Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 5-270475, for example. With this shifting control device, a manual knob and a winder are linked by a relay cable, and a shifting cable that is linked to the shifter is also linked to the winder. In order to lighten the operating effort required by the manual knob, the winding diameter of the relay cable is made greater than the winding diameter of the shifting cable. With such a device, however, reducing the operating effort by half requires that the winding diameter of the relay cable be twice the winding diameter of the shifting cable, so the winder becomes bulky. As a result the overall shifting control device is large. Consequently, there are problems with a shifting control device such as that described above in terms of mounting site options and the degree of design freedom.